Doodalights

thingiverse

This project started with a desire for some shelf-mounted lights in my home theater room. I went to Ikea and bought some Dioders, which worked great but had one major flaw - the light bled out onto my projector screen. I wanted something different. To fix this issue, I cut an A4 sheet of paper in half, folded it down the middle, and placed it on the shelves above, blocking the light partially. I had considered using a 3D printer to replace these lights but that would have been a waste of filament since I already had 12 strips at 30cm long. A friend suggested using aluminium U-channel rods, which are widely available at most hardware stores. I bought some in Brico here in Antwerp and cut them into three sections each 33cm long. You can get these rods in various sizes, but I chose 10x13x10x1.5mm cuts. The design is parametric, so you can adjust it to fit the material you have: http://www.geminidev.be/3d/openjscad/#examples/doodalights/. Don't forget to add a 0.2mm tolerance to the width and height of the rods. I used blutack to hold the lights in place and still need to drill cable holes through the back of the shelves, but overall I'm very happy with the results so far. This project has inspired me to think about other creative uses for these lights, some related to lighting and others not. Print Settings Rafts: No Supports: No Resolution: 0.3 Infill: 20%